People Are More Important Than Things

I realize I am an old girl in a new world but ya know what????

Put the @#!*% phones down, there are humans in front of you....RECOGNIZE THEM.

 As often happens when I read one of my favorite blogs, my brain zooms into action on a topic that fires me up and boy is this one of them. PHONES....grrrrrrr.

Yes, it is partially because I am an old gal and partially because I am the mother of 8.

 This topic really gets to me because a am a big time people person and I love to connect. Try walking down the street or in a grocery store now.....too funny...or not. Actually I had a better observation picking up my lovely daughter from college. I was sitting in the car waiting for her and I watched as human after human literally missed smacking into a pole by millimeters as they stared blankly at their phones. Not one, EVER looked up to acknowledge another planet dweller. No smiles. No goofy guy nods. No sweet girl smiles. No males or females even looking for each other!  NOTHING...not one among many, many students.


Our daughter, too, is super people oriented and had been ready to whip the world beginning Running Start at the local Community College as a high school senior. She wanted to meet everyone there as she has spent the last years of her life in hospitals, doctor's offices, infusion centers, labs....well you get the gist. She is well spoken, mature.....ready to take on life.  She came home rather deflated telling us they were like robots attached to these phones in class and out. This, coming from a then 17 year old not an old lady like myself.

 My day waiting for her confirmed her tale.

This is hard for me as an extrovert. This short video below shows it perfectly. She sees how no one is wholly present to her. I find myself backing away now from those who do this, as my time is more valuable than those who want to divide my time with a technological instrument.

 Not just my time, But I am more valuable than this. I have taken the time to spend with you. 

 YOU, because you are important and valuable to me. I have better things to do than sit while you pull out an inanimate object.

Please take the short 2 minutes to watch this. It's good. She is fully present in her life....they are busy "catching" or "checking" it as it goes by.....

Being present is so, so important. Especially as fast as life is on this planet now.

I recognize no one wants the "phones are so terrible" speech. My goal is the "humans are infinitely important" emphasis. Recognize if even for an afternoon how often the phone takes you from the face or ears of a human. Any human even if they are not important to you. Maybe you are important to them and you may not know it. There are things I guarantee you are missing. Connections you are meant to have that you are not having. Moments that have gone.....looks that have passed you by because you're checking something "real quick".

God works in a moment.

People relay pain or messages or feelings sometimes in a brief look or body posture......you will miss it glancing at that THING.  You will miss the nuances of life. In some ways it's what we're missing right now in our culture...the little things.

Definition of Nuance:

1: a subtle distinction or variation

2: a subtle quality : nicety

3:sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)

a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression, or sound.

"the nuances of facial expression and body language"

synonyms:

fine distinction, subtle difference;

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The big things in life get our attention but it's the nuances that shape our life, shape a sentence, shape a day, shape an opinion, shape a mood, so many things. We are missing these nuances because of the glances...... the constant glancing over,  glancing down at those @#!*% phones.  Because a nuance is subtle. Subtle is soft, quick, small, you must be paying attention.  Hear that?

 You must be paying attention.

 Where is everyone's attention? Spend 15 minutes on a bench somewhere.

Maybe just spend 5 minutes less a day checking the phone. Maybe stash it away when the person you love most is talking to you, or the children you love most are telling you about their day. Instead of it being stuck to your palm, maybe put it in a in a drawer for an hour. Or turn off the sound all together??

 Anything is better and better is always good. Not perfect, better.

 People are always more important than things. Ask my kids. They can give you the old eye roll on that. They've heard it since they could walk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, people are more important than things mom. It does however work in reverse guys....I have said it many times when I got the call.....

 "Mom...pause....I'm okay ,but....I just had an accident". My first words go something like..."It's just a car, people are more important than things".

~Blessings~

Lisa